Know Your Country – KYC. India Continues to be an Underdeveloped Country
Know Your Country – KYC
INDIA
Know Your Country – KYC. India Continues to be an Underdeveloped Country
Now, there is a dangerous nexus between dishonest politicians who want to stay in power by hook or by crook and cunning capitalists who are silently looting the Indian public.
By Rakesh Raman
Today, India is facing the worst existential crisis as the country’s 1.4 billion commoners are under a grave threat from their own political rulers who have been exploiting them for the past over seven decades after India got independence from the Britishers in 1947.
While almost all Indian politicians are crooks and corrupt – many are facing serious criminal charges – they have been winning elections by dividing voters on the basis of their caste, creed, color, and religious affiliations. They have also been tampering with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and bribing the voters to win elections fraudulently.
Now, there is a dangerous nexus between these dishonest politicians who want to stay in power by hook or by crook and cunning capitalists who are silently looting the Indian public. Together, they have reduced India to a level of criminalized kleptocracy, in which all the four pillars of democracy have collapsed. The courts in India have lost their relevance, bureaucrats are extremely corrupt, while the police and security forces operate as gangs of criminals.
The following data will tell you the extent of damage that Indian politicians of all political parties have done to the country and its people. This data further shows that India continues to be an underdeveloped country.
Note: The Indian government of prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi arrogantly rejects all the truthful global reports that reveal the government failure or the autocracy of the Modi regime. Without offering any logical reasoning, the Modi government randomly claims that it is a global conspiracy to discredit Modi and his government.
The lawless Modi regime also gets off scot-free by claiming that it is an internal matter of India where the foreign powers cannot interfere. But when frequent state crimes and human rights violations are happening under the Modi regime, the world leaders have a definite role to protect people who are being persecuted and tortured.
The world leaders must understand that external intervention is required in a country where an apocalyptic situation persists. They should learn from the example of Germany where the forces of ruthless German dictator Adolf Hitler were vanquished by the external Allied powers to put an end to his dictatorship. If not controlled immediately, the plight in India will take the form of oppressed Germany of the 1930s and 1940s.
Since U.S. President Joe Biden is particularly complicit in state crimes in India, the Defeat Biden Campaign was launched to defeat Biden in the 2024 U.S. Presidential election. He has quit the presidential election race.
Extreme Hunger: In the 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI), India ranks 105th out of 127 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2024 GHI scores. With a score of 27.3 in the 2024 Global Hunger Index, India has a level of hunger that is serious.
Foreign Investment: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows to India plummeted by 43 per cent in 2023 to $28 billion amid a global decline of 2 per cent, a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on June 20, 2024. According to the report, India dropped to 15th spot in 2023 from 8th position in 2022 in terms of FDI inflows.
Press Freedom: The 2024 World Press Freedom Index released on May 3 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows that India is increasingly becoming a dangerous place for journalists. India’s rank on the RSF Index fell from 142 in 2021 to 150 in 2022 to 161 in 2023, and now it is 159 – which is a manifestation of the fact that press freedom is constantly under state attack.
Human Rights Violations and Corruption: The U.S. Department of State in its annual country report released on April 22, 2024 has revealed extreme corruption and human rights violations in India. You can click here to read the excerpts from the report on India.
Electoral Autocracy: The “Democracy Report 2024: Democracy Winning and Losing at the Ballot” released on March 7, 2024 by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project reveals that India lost its status of democracy and dropped down to electoral autocracy in 2018 and remains in this category by the end of 2023.
Corruption: The 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released on January 30, 2024 by Transparency International reveals extreme corruption in India. According to CPI, India shows score fluctuations small enough that no firm conclusions can be drawn on any significant change, but the country’s score dropped to 39 in 2023 from 40 a year ago. That means corruption has increased in the country of 1.4 billion people. According to a Times of India report of January 30, 2024, India’s CPI rank slipped from 85 in 2022 to 93 in 2023, which indicates more corruption.
Lawlessness: According to the latest 2023 Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project, India’s score declined from 0.50 in 2022 to 0.49 in 2023 and India ranked 79th across 142 countries in 2023 while the civil and criminal justice systems in the country are on the verge of collapse. The World Justice Project findings are consistent with the incidents of increasing judicial corruption in India.
Communal Violence: Human Rights Watch (HRW) World Report 2024 reveals that the Indian government, led by prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), persisted with policies that discriminate and stigmatize religious and other minorities. This led to increasing incidents of communal violence in many parts of the country.
Extreme Debt: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned in December 2023 that India’s general government debt could exceed 100 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the medium term. It also cautioned that long-term debt sustainability risks are high due to the significant investment required to meet India’s climate change mitigation targets. The country’s total debt rose to $2.47 trillion (Rs 205 lakh crore) in September 2023. The debt under the Modi regime increased by over 174% from Rs. 58.6 lakh crore in 2014 when Modi became the PM.
Attacks on Religious Minorities: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has said that prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s government has blatantly attacked the religious minorities in India during the past decade of Modi’s rule. In a legal hearing held on September 20, 2023, USCIRF observed that the Modi government has enacted and enforced discriminatory policies targeting religious minorities.
Violence and Human Rights Violations. In July 2023, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the violence in Manipur, stating that minorities, civil society, human rights defenders and journalists regularly face harassment in India. It adds that in the latest round of violence human rights groups have accused PM Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government in Manipur and nationally of implementing divisive ethnonationalistic policies which oppress in particular religious minorities.
Complicity in Corruption: France’s 7.8-billion-euro sale to India of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter jets is the subject of an ongoing French judicial investigation into suspected corruption involving politicians and industrialists, including PM Modi.
Human Rights Violations: In June 2023, a slew of U.S. lawmakers urged President Joe Biden to raise the issue of increasing human rights violations and attacks on democratic institutions by the Modi regime in India. U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) and U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) led a bicameral letter with over 70 of their colleagues, urging Biden to discuss the need to protect human rights and democratic values in India.
Press Freedom: The 2023 World Press Freedom Index released on May 3 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows that India is increasingly becoming a dangerous place for journalists. India’s rank on the RSF Index fell from 142 in 2021 to 150 in 2022 to 161 in 2023, which is a manifestation of the fact that press freedom is constantly under state attack.
Corruption and Human Rights Violations: In its report released on March 20, 2023, the U.S. Department of State has accused India of extreme human rights violations and rampant corruption. According to the report, the state crimes happening in India include unlawful and arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings by the government or its agents; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention, arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; restrictions on freedom of expression and media, and serious government corruption.
Corruption and Lawlessness: The government led by prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has presided over discriminatory policies and a rise in persecution affecting the Muslim population. Also, large-scale political corruption scandals have repeatedly exposed bribery and other malfeasance, but a great deal of corruption is thought to go unreported and unpunished. These are among the findings of the 2023 edition of Freedom in the World report released on March 9 by Freedom House.
Electoral Autocracy: A global report released on March 2, 2023 by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project has asserted that India under the rule of prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi continues to be an electoral autocracy and has lost its status of a democracy.
Internet Shutdowns: India, which was responsible for 84 Internet shutdowns in 2022, remains the country with the highest number of recorded shutdowns in the world — for the fifth consecutive year. This is stated in the Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition’s report released on February 28, 2023.
Mass Killing and Violence: A US-based research organization has predicted that India is among the top countries which are facing risk of mass killing and violence. The Early Warning Project (EWP), which identifies countries at risk of mass violence, has ranked India at the 8th position among the countries that are under the highest risk for mass killing in 2022 and 2023.
U.S. Resolution on Human Rights Violations: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) introduced a resolution on June 22, 2022 to condemn human rights violations and violations of international religious freedom in India, including those targeting Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Adivasis, and other religious and cultural minorities. The resolution calls on the U.S. Secretary of State to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act, which has been recommended by the independent, bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for the past three years.
Attacks on Press Freedom: With extreme attacks on journalists and media freedom, India has plummeted to 150th position in 2022 on the RSF World Press Freedom Index from its 2021 rank of 142 in 180 countries. The Index is published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based international organization that defends freedom of journalists in all parts of the world.
Extreme Hunger: The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 reveals that India has slipped to 101st position in 116 countries from its 2020 position of 94th, which throws India behind its neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal which are considered poor and underdeveloped countries.
Environmental Damage: In the 2022 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), the lowest scores go to India (18.9) in a list of 180 countries. Even smaller countries such as Myanmar (19.4), Viet Nam (20.1), Bangladesh (23.1), and Pakistan (24.6) have performed better than India to protect the environment.
Corruption: While rampant corruption is happening across the country, the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released in January 2022 by Transparency International reveals that India is among the most corrupt countries of the world. The Index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, asserts that India, with a score of just 40, is ranked 85 in the world. In other words, India is more corrupt than 84 other countries.
Human Rights Violations: Human Rights Watch said in its latest World Report 2022 that Indian authorities have intensified their crackdown on activists, journalists, and other critics of the government using politically motivated prosecutions. The report has revealed extreme human rights violations in India.
Similarly, Amnesty International Report 2021/22: The State of the World’s Human Rights which was released in March 2022 has cited a number of individual cases which reveal that human rights violations are rampant in India while the government is complicit in most crimes.
Criminality in Politics: The world’s top magazine The Economist said “a penchant for criminality is an electoral asset in India.” The magazine published data about the political success of India’s “accused murderers, blackmailers, thieves, and kidnappers,” saying that 34% of India’s members of parliament (MPs) in the Lok Sabha had criminal charges filed against them.
Discriminatory Policies: The annual Freedom in the World 2022 report released in February by Freedom House has labelled India as a “Partly Free” country while its Global Freedom Score has plummeted to 66 from 67 last year. Also, India’s Internet Freedom Score is just 49 which shows that there are frequent restrictions on the use of the Internet in the country.
As there are extreme human rights violations in the Kashmir region – which is under the occupation of Indian security forces – the Freedom House report states that Kashmir – with a Global Freedom Score of just 27 – is “Not Free”.
Electoral Autocracy: The Democracy Report 2022 released in March by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, finds that electoral autocracies are home to the largest share of the world population following India’s downgrade to electoral autocracy in 2020.
Crime and Impunity: The U.S. Department of State in its annual country reports on corruption and human rights practices released in April 2022 has reported extreme corruption and human rights violations in India. The U.S. report reveals that a lack of accountability for official misconduct persisted at all levels of government in India, contributing to widespread impunity.
Collapsed Justice System. As the justice system has completely collapsed in India, the World Justice Project (WJP) ranked India at 79th position across 139 countries in 2021 in its WJP Rule of Law Index.
Poor Human Development Index. In the Human Development Index (HDI) compiled by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for 189 nations, India staggers at a poor rank of 131. Smaller countries such as Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Morocco, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam have a better HDI ranking than India.
Attacks on Religious Freedom: The International Religious Freedom Report released in June 2022 by the U.S. Department of State has raised serious concerns over increasing attacks on Muslims and other minority communities in India. The report states that attacks on members of religious minority communities, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, occurred throughout the year. These included incidents of “cow vigilantism” against non-Hindus based on allegations of cow slaughter or trade in beef.
Repressed Nation: India is currently rated Repressed by the CIVICUS Monitor. The new watchlist was released in March 2022 by the CIVICUS Monitor, an online platform that tracks the latest developments to civic freedoms, including the freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, across 197 countries and territories.
Genocide Alert: The global Genocide Watch has put India under “Genocide alert” with Muslims and landowners among the affected groups. It says Hindu extremists and naxalite maoists are harassing these groups. Genocide Watch aims to predict, prevent, stop, and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder. Its purpose is to build an international movement to prevent and stop genocide.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
He has also launched the “Power Play: Lok Sabha Election 2024 in India” editorial section to cover the news, events, and other developments related to the 2024 election.
